Emerging technologies such as IoT, AI and advanced modeling techniques are enabling an intelligent, connected and digitally empowered mesh of people, things and services which outline a definitive concept, Digital Twin, for today’s business.

Digital Twin has moved beyond manufacturing sector, its traditional ecosystem, into all sorts of service and goods-based businesses ranging from automotive to healthcare. And, it is so imperative to business today, it has continuously named within Gartner’s top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for the past couple of years.

It’s important to remove some myths spread about Digital Twin and answer the biggest questions: What is it? Why does it matter? What are the benefits and the challenges? Which are the building blocks?

You probably all know how an iceberg – a huge block of ice floating in the coldest seas – is made. Given that the density of ice is around 920 kg/m3 and the density of sea water is around 1025 kg/m3, approximately 90% of the volume of an iceberg remains hidden under the surface of the water, while the other 10% remains visible as it hasemerged.

Now, bending the laws of physics using imagination, let’s imagine that this iceberg can be overturned, with the smallest part below water level and the largest part completely emerged and visible.

Let’s now try to make a further effort of imagination and associate the concepts of “innovativeness” and “reliability” respectively to the immersed part – remember that it is the smallest one because in our exercise the iceberg is overturned – and to the emerged part, the largest, of our strange iceberg.

Now it should all be a little clearer, it’s a question of Innovation Management, physics has nothing to do with it, not even ice.

Open Data is increasingly talked about as a central element for guiding innovation and transparency in Public Administration.

It’s very true: Open Data is a formidable tool for allowing citizens to access public information in a new way and through apps and software platforms created by third parties. They are an exceptional tool, certainly necessary for achieving such a goal but, unfortunately, not sufficient.

What can we expect in terms of technology in the next few years, giving ourselves 2030 as the horizon?

The Future of Jobs report from the World Economic Forum contains an interesting and slightly disturbing figure: 65% of children currently in primary schools will enter completely new jobs, jobs that do not yet exist. On second thought this is not so strange; in fact, if we try to look back ten years, many jobs that we consider normal today did not exist at all. In the sphere of technology alone, we can cite the app developer, the social media manager, the seller of advertising on social networks, and the certified pilot of drones and multi-rotors, to name just a few.

In all likelihood, we ourselves have had to change our professionalism and increase our skills to cope with the technological and social changes that have occurred in recent years. Moreover, those who work in the field of technology and innovation must be as prepared as possible not only to take care of their professionalism but also to help their customers face their positioning in a rapidly transforming market in the best possible way, from both the technological point of view and from that of the new business models that will appear.

So let us see what we can expect in terms of technology in the next few years, giving ourselves 2030 as the horizon.

Carlo and Paola have been living together for several years; they seem a perfect couple. No one knows that their union is soon destined to end, not even them. Yet within their “family organization” all the elements indicating unequivocally that they are heading in that direction, can already be seen. It is, for example, the use of a credit card in a restaurant for an amount that is not compatible with someone dining alone.

Maybe not everybody knows that, during the journey Benjen Stark had to come back to the Wall, carrying a cage of ravens donated by Maester Luwin, he remained one night in a hotel he found on TripAdvisor.

After getting the formalities (documents, breakfast from 6:30 to 10:00, room number, etc.), Benjen poses the question: “In this hotel do you have the free WiFi service in the rooms?”.

Sometimes people believe that Innovation is a spark, a flame that suddenly illuminates the dark mind of some manager or some engineer, locked in their office, staring at the white ceiling and listening to Bach.

Those are people that say “With such an idea you cannot help to change the world and become rich, for sure!”, Those are the same people who say “With that amazing camera you cannot take bad pictures, it is full automatic!” and than “ With that kind of guitar you cannot play poorly, it sounds wonderfully!”.

The Innovator people, who hides himself behind a much safer: “I pursue Innovation in production processes, for my products and services, in order to strengthen and expand my business.”

The Visionary people, who believes that the first process that need to be innovated is Innovation, even before production ones, because innovating innovation processes can provide advantages to the product delivery and to service providing to the customer.

Virtual Enterprises are temporary alliances of business organizations that come together sharing skills, knowledge, information and resources in order to better respond to business opportunities, and whose cooperation is supported by IT platforms. This chapter in an introduction to Business Innovation in Virtual Enterprise Environments.Read More